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Gregor von Rezzori's An Ermine in Czernopol

“Any reader of European literature who has not read Gregor von Rezzori has committed the unthinkable. This is the rare writer who writes with unmatched beauty and skill while celebrating the joys of life." —Gary Shteyngart

A masterpiece of post-war literature, Gregor von Rezzori's An Ermine in Czernopol takes place just after World War I, centering on the tragicomic fate of Tildy, an erstwhile officer in the army of the now-defunct Austro-Hungarian Empire, determined to defend the virtue of his cheating sister-in-law at any cost. Von Rezzori surrounds Tildy with a host of fantastic characters, engaging us in a kaleidoscopic experience of a city where nothing is as it appears.

In celebration of New York Review Books new translation of Gregor von Rezzori's An Ermine in Czernopol, we hosted a reading with renowned authors Deborah Eisenberg and Wallace Shawn.

Deborah Eisenberg is a MacArthur Foundation Fellow and the recipient of numerous honors including the 2011 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, a Whiting Writer’s Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Eisenberg is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books and is the author of, most recently, a short story collection, Twilight of the Superheroes. She currently teaches at Columbia University.

Wallace Shawn is an Obie Award-winning playwright and a noted actor. He is co-author of the movie My Dinner with Andre and author of the plays Marie and Bruce, The Fever, Aunt Dan and Lemon, The Designated Mourner, and Grasses of a Thousand Colors. Well-known for his roles in movies such as The Princess Bride, Woody Allen’s Manhattan, and numerous television series, he is the author of a nonfiction collection entitled Essays (Haymarket Books).